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Firefighters at the scene of a blaze.
Firefighters are currently battling a fire at the Masiphumelele informal settlement near Fish Hoek in the Cape Peninsula.
City of Cape Town’s Fire Services spokesperson, Jermaine Carelse, says 14 firefighting vehicles and more than 70 staff members are on site, including an Incident Management Team.
He says electricity in the area has been cut off to mitigate risks from overhead wires.
Carelse says law enforcement is also patrolling the area due to incidents of fire hoses being tampered with.
No injuries or fatalities have been reported.
“The Incident Command Post has been set up in Houmoed Avenue from where operations are being directed. Electricity to the area has been cut off for the duration of the incident to mitigate any potential risk from overhead wires. Law Enforcement has been requested to patrol the fire lines as there have been attempts to cut fire hoses. At this stage, the fire is under control and no injuries or fatalities have been reported.”
Meanwhile, Humanitarian aid organisation, Gift of the Givers says it will provide humanitarian assistance over the next five days to fire victims in the area.
Ali Sablay, says the organisation’s teams remain active at five other fire sites across the Western Cape.
He says teams are on high alert for this fire season.
“Gift of the Givers teams received frantic calls from the community of Masipumlelele in the early hours of this morning, informing us that parts of the informal settlement is on fire. Firefighters are still on site trying to extinguish the blaze. Gift of the Givers team members are still active on five other fire sites around the Western Cape, with the latest one being the Kosovo, Philippi, where a fire destroyed a number of structures yesterday. Our teams are prepared and on standby for this fire season, we have brought in additional stocks from our warehouses, from KZN and Gauteng.”
Four years ago in December, a devastating fire ripped through the informal settlement, destroying about a thousand structures.
The fire was fanned by gale force winds and left thousands of people homeless.
Fire rips through Masiphumelele informal settlement – 18 December 2020:
